Campina Grande Information

Campina Grande, in the Brazilian North East state of Paraiba, is recognised as the second city to Joao Pessoa, the capital. It is considered to be the most important city of the North East Brazilian sub-region called Sertão, and is also one of the main industrial, technological and educational centres in the North East region of Brazil.

Campina Grande city was officially founded in 1788. Campina Grande also has a large cultural agenda, including the world's largest Saint John's Festival (O Maior São João do Mundo), which takes place during the entire month of June each year. Also, do not miss out on the 'Micarande Carnaval', being one of the most traditional out of season carnival festivals in Brazil.

The founding of Campina Grande is credited to Captain Teodósio de Oliveira Ledo who led a group of Ariús Indians to settle on the land and began farming in the region on December 1, 1697.

The political actions of Teodósio in mentioning Campina Grande to the king of Portugal in May 1699 went a long way to establishing the location as an important place.

The Ariús inhabited a small farm made up of shacks which became the first street in the new community. Later, this street was called Rua do Oriente (Street of the East) and today it is know as rua Vila Nova da Rainha (New Village of the Queen). The Cathedral of Campina Grande was constructed on one of the higher slopes in the area. It formed the Matriz plaza which later also became one of city's most important streets: Avenida Marechal Floriano Peixoto.

Campina Grande began as a small village situated in front of an old lake called Açude Velho.

The village soon became a town because of the commerce it attracted and the fact that there were few settlements in Paraíba at the time.

The introduction of the railroad developed this tiny village into a bustling city. At the beginning of the 20th century, Campina Grande was called "The Brazilian Liverpool" because of the numerous cotton plantations and factories. At the time, it was the second biggest producer of cotton in the world.

Today, the city has added to its old and rich traditions by becoming a technology oasis in Brazil's North East region.

For a long time Campina Grande has had a strong technological focus. For 40 years, it was the second largest exporter of cotton in the world, but in 1967, the city became the first location in Brazil's North East to receive a computer (Federal University of Campina Grande). Today, many years later, Campina Grande is often referred to when talking about the development of software and computer science industries.

In April 2001, Newsweek magazine chose nine cities around the world that represented a new vision for technology. Brazil is represented on this list by Campina Grande and it was the only city chosen from Latin America. In 2003, it was mentioned again as the “Brazilian Silicon Valley,"

The reason for this success has been due to the technological work performed by the Federal University of Paraíba (in 2002 it became the Federal University of Campina Grande). Since 1967, when the University obtained support to buy its first computer for US$ 500,000, the city has prided itself on the technological excellence it abides by, which is recognised throughout the world.